Humble Pie – What to do when No One Shows Up Purity 921

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Today's photo of the silhouette of a man with his hands open and turned to heaven under the red clouds of sunset comes to us from the furthest recesses of my phone's photo archives and an unknown source. I will gladly add a photo credit to this if I receive the source information, but am using it today to set it free and to encourage people in need to surrender to the Lord and seek his wisdom and strength all the days of their lives. So I am hopeful and pray that the artist behind this image won't object to its use. Uh, according to my phone, I saved this image back on December 23rd, 2011, 11 years ago, in the very early days of my Christian walk. And although much has changed between now and then, I am still repeatedly reminded to humbly surrender to the Lord's will for my life and can relate to the, the sometimes desperate moments where we suffer trials or take a misstep on the path of Christian discipleship. When we get a feeling to do something for the Lord and we learn from the results that we may have intercepted an enemy message that was intended to deceive us and lead us into frustration or despair, Or we may have heard rightly, but the Lord decided to use our failure to teach us a lesson in humility and the need to depend on him only. Yesterday I hosted a Zoom meeting for an audience of one. I invited, uh, the Freedom in Christ Course graduates from this year on short notice for an impromptu opportunity to check in, and I implied that we could possibly meet monthly in 2023. And I added, uh, to the invite, uh, unless no one shows up. And no one did. Uh, so although I had a sudden feeling to send out this invite a couple of days ago during prayer, because God is sovereign, we know that the idea to haphazardly plan this meeting was either my idea, the enemy's, or God's, because no No one attended besides me, myself, and I. It is pretty easy to credit the inspiration for this meeting and possibly— and possible monthly ministry to me and my foolishness. I have a full plate already for 2023 and actually hoped after sending the impromptu invitation that no one would show up, uh, because it might have stretched me beyond my limits. Uh, if that hope was a prayer, it was answered. I would have loved to, uh, to have seen— to have seen— have seen some of the guys to check in, but in retrospect, I think I was setting myself up to be stretched too thin. Uh, and surprisingly, the Lord didn't bless this mighty work that I had spontaneously planned to do for him. Uh, the other possibility is that the spiritual forces of darkness, uh, shot this dart of an idea into my head, hoping the lackluster results would discourage me or bring me to despair. Let's face it, throwing a party and having no one show up can be pretty depressing. And the enemy loves to influence Christians to do things that may seem good. Most sins start off with, uh, with good, or at least good-for-me intentions, but will result in shame, guilt, or other feelings that will lead us to condemn ourselves. The third possibility, which actually would encompass all these possibilities, is that it was God's idea to have me set, set up this meeting to humble me. Scripture and our life experiences reveals that God will allow us to do things against his will and can even use bad things for good. God is the good Father, and he, he alone knows best. And as confusing as life can be for us, he knows what will happen, and he can use every aspect of our experience for his purposes. The story of Job teaches us that God will allow it. God will allow the enemy access to tempt us and make us suffer God will allow us to choose our path through life and suffer the negative consequences for doing things in our own strength or according to our limited knowledge. In the story of Job, sure, the enemy orchestrates the initial disasters that bring Job low, but after that it is the foolishness of men's wisdom that takes center stage as Job and his friends seek to make sense of it all. In their spiritual discussions there is a mixture of error and truth, as we only know in part the wisdom of the Lord. They yammer on for 37 chapters, insulting and chastising one another about the ways of God, until the Lord decides he's heard enough and wants to speak for himself. Possibly in response to Job's friend Elihu's statement, "As for the Almighty, we cannot find him," God comes on the scene. Job 31:1-2 says, "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 'Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?'" Uh, God then proceeds to put Job and his friends in their place and affirms that Job is his faithful servant, and he commands that Job's friends, uh, repent with sacrifices lest they suffer for their folly. God then restores to Job everything that was taken from him. So what can we learn from Job's story and the embarrassment of my unattended Zoom meeting? God is the only one who knows his ways perfectly, and even though we may think we have a great idea of something we can do for the Lord, it may not be according to his will, or it will be— will not be according to his will as we think it will be. My old pastor told a story once about how in the early days of his church, he was enjoying the success of a young, thriving congregation that seemed to be on fire for the Lord. So he called an impromptu prayer meeting where he and his church could call on God to do his will, right? Only to feel the sting of embarrassment and the bitter taste of humble pie when not a single person from his church came out to pray. I too in the past have gone to recovery ministry and discipleship ministry only to end up as the only person attending. So what do you do when no one shows up? When your great idea has zero results, do you give up? Do you stop? In some cases, yes. Some ministries just die. We can press on and keep on pressing in, but after an extended period of decline or of— and no one showing up, it might be time to call it quits. However, this is really up to God, so we have to talk to him about what he wants us to do and be open for his answers. As for me, I guess I won't be doing Zoom meetings on Wednesday nights in 2023. That's okay. Tuesday and Thursdays will be full, and I think I'll, I will use Wednesdays to rest or study or be available for whatever the Lord puts before me. Uh, uh, but sometimes we have to stick it out So good luck with that. So, but sometimes we have to stick it— stick with it and keep going. Many ministries, ministers have had dry seasons that they had to walk through before a surge of enthusiasm and success came to their doorstep. So in your individual walk, don't be discouraged if no one shows up, because guess what? That's just not true. God is always there. And he will use all the things we go through for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. So keep walking and talking with God, and be sure to listen when you get negative feedback. Uh, the Lord may want you to stop, go in another direction, or simply to take a rest. Our lives are a gift from him, so let's, let's listen and follow him and learn along the way. And I'm short on time today, so there won't be a Bible verse of the day from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. I'm going to listen to that. Basically, I felt called to get into the word, so I did. So I have less time. And, um, hey, I, I benefited from what I've studied. But, uh, I am going to share from, uh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, uh, Cost of Discipleship, or Discipleship, chapter 12, The Saints. We'll continue sharing from that resource. That's just a copy and paste, so we'll, uh, stick that on the end of today's blog post. So if you want to see what Bonhoeffer has to say in the next section of, uh, chapter 12 of The Saints, go to mt4christ.org and check out that resource at the end of today's blog post. Also, if you wanted to, you could attend some of the meetings I had in the past by going to the podcast and searching for classes called Victor Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker or Freedom in Christ. Uh, the Freedom in Christ ones were all attended by me solo, as I, as I, uh, as I decided to put it on the podcast. Um, so, and you know, to be honest, I think one of the Victory Over the Darkness or the Bondage Breaker, maybe more than one, were attended by myself even though they weren't intended to be. So if you wanted to try to discern whether or not anyone was there when I was teaching Um, check out all the messages. Uh, but, um, you know, I felt called to do it. And, uh, you know, and now these messages that were sparsely attended, um, and, and had limited results, uh, are getting clicked on, at least on the YouTube channel. So, you know, if it encourages one person, that's my ministry. I don't have a church, so my My ministry is very limited. I— whoever, whoever God decides to see my messages and be encouraged from them. So I'm a very humble ministry, and I'm continually humbled, uh, by it. Um, but it's my walk, and I'm just sharing it to encourage people to, to figure out your walk and to, to let you know that, uh, it's not all rainbows and sunsets on the path of Christian discipleship, but uh, it's always good, um, because God's with us. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you do in our lives and the fact that you never leave us or forsake us, even when it seems we're all alone. Lord, we pray for the people listening today, no matter where they be, or, or reading, um, uh, the message today. We, we pray for you to bless them. And to encourage them to keep following you, um, no matter what results they, they encounter, because you're with them every step of the way. Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see today, lead us into the things you want us to do, and help us to do, you know, to do our best to represent you, um, on the earth and to do your will, whatever that is. But Most of it's not a mystery. Uh, we can just, you know, follow you and do what your, your word says. And, um, uh, we just, we, we just want you to know, Lord, that we know you're good, and we know, um, that you have our best, best, uh, life ahead of us, uh, in your presence forever. So, Lord, uh, thank you. We love you. We praise you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.